Gridiron season at COS: Intra-squad game set for Saturday in Weed

The College of the Siskiyous football team is deep in preparations for the upcoming season.

After a magical 10-1 campaign in 2012, the Eagles are now nationally ranked in a number of preseason polls, including No. 24 in The Sporting News, as there are high expectations for the 2013 COS squad.

The team opens the year at home on Saturday, Sept. 7, versus College of the Redwoods.

Head coach Charlies Roche said that after starting camp with 133 players, there is now 114 still on the squad as of Wednesday afternoon.

Roche said that he likes how fall camp has gone so far and the way players have been competitive and are battling for spots.

Roche believes the talent on the team this year is strong and said that now it's a matter of everyone coming together as a group.

There are more than 40 returners this year with the rest being newcomers to the program.

An intra-squad scrimmage is set for Saturday. The game begins at 3:30 p.m. at COS.

"This is especially important for the young kids," Roche said. "This will be their first time getting to play in college."

Roche encouraged fans to come out and root the team on. He said fan support has been quite good so far and added that around 100 folks were in the stands last Saturday for the first day of full contact practices.

When it comes to the accolades in preseason polls, Roche said that this is a reflection on how the team did last year. He has preached to his squad that this is a whole new season, and they need to prove that they belong once they take the field and face other programs.

He added the goal of the COS football team is to certainly be a top-tier squad each season and be a school with a reputation for sending players on to four-year institutions.